"The noise is like love," said John Dalziel, father of one of the drivers. "You can feel it inside of you."

To others, who hadn't come downtown for the race, the noise and accompanying closed-off streets were an unexpected and unwelcome annoyance on Easter Sunday in Las Vegas.

Kentucky residents Norman Varon, 44, and his wife, Melissa, 38, had come to town for a romantic vacation to celebrate the 18th anniversary of when they met each other.

"It didn't work out too well. At 8 o'clock in the morning, these things run around your hotel room and wake you right up," Varon said as he and his wife lounged poolside Sunday at the Golden Nugget. "There's no sleeping after that. Today, at least it was 9, but it's pretty loud."

He had to shout every third sentence because of the buzz of the cars whizzing by.

Similarly, Eric Hector, 36, and Kim Miller, 48, of Sharpsville, Pa., didn't know about the grand prix when they booked their vacation at Binion's. But they saw it as a bonus.

"It's been interesting. It has added a little bit more than we expected," Hector said. "We weren't exactly expecting peace and quiet, being that it is Las Vegas."

"If you wanted peace and quiet, you'd stay at Sharpsville," Miller added.

Pleasantly surprised or otherwise, an estimated 40,000-plus people attended Sunday's culmination of the Vegas Grand Prix, which organizers billed as a "three-day festival of speed and entertainment."

Bob and Rhonda Barraclough of Edmonton, Canada, had their tickets to Las Vegas when they heard about the race.

"We're having a great time," he said during the race. "The excitement, the noise. This is racing."

Barraclough, who was in a wheelchair, said he had encountered some problems, such as finding only one shuttle with wheelchair access and no seat for his wife to sit next to him.

But, he added, "this is a first-time event, and these are just hiccups. They'll get it."

Dale Jensen, co-owner of the Vegas Grand Prix, had a similar take, but with a lot more enthusiasm and positive spin.

"This thing turned out to be actually over the top of what I would have considered acceptable for a first-year event. I can't tell you how ecstatic I am about how this turned out," Jensen said.

City officials are counting on the event to infuse some life into downtown, which still is fighting its image as the Strip's funny-smelling, past-his-prime uncle.

Mayor Oscar Goodman has pointed to what a similar street race has done for downtown Long Beach, Calif. And downtown Las Vegas, with its adult bookstores and homeless notably out of sight, received national exposure thanks to the race's live broadcast on NBC. The race also was available to television viewers in 181 other countries. The Champ Car racing series is more popular overseas than in the United States, and many of the drivers come from foreign countries.

Team Australia driver Will Power dominated Las Vegas' first Champ Car World Series race, defeating runner-up and former Formula One driver Robert Doornbos of the Netherlands by 16.787 seconds. That's a racing version of a blowout.

Summerlin resident Paul Tracy finished third after an extended pit stop cost him precious seconds when his team had problems refueling his car. Alex Tagliani, also of Summerlin, placed fourth.

Drivers and teams praised the event and the course, which they said was one of the fastest they'd seen.

"I've never been to a first race this good," said Katie Brannan, public relations and marketing director with Pacific Coast Motorsports. "It's a great venue. This course has everything drivers want. ... Hopefully, Las Vegas likes us."

Race officials vowed to bring back the race. They have a contract with the city of Las Vegas for a minimum of two more years with an option for two additional years beyond that.

Others, though, were not impressed with cars that run on methane making the 2.44-mile, 12-turn loop in as little as 1 minute, 19 seconds.

People who had parked within the race course couldn't get their cars out for most of the day. There were onerous walks over pedestrian bridges. And the Greyhound bus station on Main Street was closed off, leaving many travelers in a struggle to find the new bus station on Casino Center Boulevard.

Greyhound had left a sign at the Main Street entrance, along with clear directions on how to get to the temporary location.

On Friday, though, the grand prix blocked off that entrance, and neither of the two other station entrances had instructions.

Lourdes Williams, a 50-year-old San Diego resident, was waiting for her 12:30 p.m. bus home after working as a part-time nurse.

"I walked two hours to find this Greyhound bus. They didn't give me any instructions. I asked people everywhere, 'Where is the Greyhound bus?'" she said. "If I didn't come here early this morning, maybe I wouldn't get home on Easter."

Gregory Lawrence, a 39-year-old Las Vegas resident, took his 15-year-old son, Andrew, to the temporary terminal so that the teen could catch a bus ride home to Bakersfield.

"Greyhound was irresponsible regarding the transfer of the terminal. They didn't give proper directions," he said. "Even myself, being a resident, it took me an extra 15 minutes of my time to stop and ask directions to where the station was."

Officials acknowledged some problems, particularly with long lines for shuttle buses from parking lots and with getting in and out of the race course area.

"This will be the worst Las Vegas race," said the other co-owner of the Vegas Grand Prix, Bradley Yonover. He, along with other race executives, promised to make improvements.

Officials had predicted that 150,000 people would turn out from Friday through Sunday, but they wouldn't provide an estimate Sunday of how many people had attended festivities and races, or how many tickets they had sold.

Vegas Grand Prix President Jim Freudenberg said many of the grandstands were sold out. By 10:15 a.m. Sunday, some people had to be turned away, he said.

But at least one grandstand, the one near the start/finish line, was half-empty during the race.

Review-Journal writer Jeff Wolf contributed to this report.